Hi!

I have a beloved old powerbook g4 (12 inch) and it is having trouble starting up some times - I look a the logs and more often it says waiting for hd! Often a hard re boot (ie holding down the power key ) will sort things out, and sometimes if you re set the pram it behaves for a while.

My suspicion though is that the HD is on the way out ( or is having trouble with the hot weather we are dealing with of late, or a combination of both) I note that this is still the original 40 gig drive that the machine shipped with about 4 years ago.

I'm thinking - do I replace the HD with something faster, (often a nice way to squeze a bit more out of an ageing machine) or am I looking at heat / power problems if I do this?


Is there anything else that may be causing this issue?

Any Melbourne Hardware places that are good at this sort of work?

Anyone aware of what sort of pricing for this sort of work?

TIA

Nevets

Would Apple or Apple Premium Resellers sell replacement hard drives?

Larry.

Yep but I want some one to install the thing as power book take appart is full on ...

They would sell the hard drives and install them, wouldn't they?

Yup - and the cost of installation is not insignificant due to the work involved.

I got mine swapped over by my local Apple reseller. Got a Hitachi 80GB 7200rpm drive installed for approx $450 about a year ago. Wanted a 120GB drive at the time, but that had to be ordered in.

I suggest booting off another Mac if possible, and clone the PowerBook HD (using FireWire Target Disk Mode) ASAP, unless, of course, you've got an up-to-date backup already.

If you're keen, www.ifixit.com has guides for a DIY job.

it is very expensive to get it done. unless you're a total clutz, i suggest buying the hard drive from msy.com.au and installing it using ifixit guides. people go on about how hard it is, but i dare say those people haven't actually opened up a 12" pb. it can be annoying because of the all the different screws, but it really isn't THAT hard. you just have to know how to use a screwdriver.

$450 for installing an 80GB HD - yikes! Looking at the iFixIt guide, there are quite a lot of screws to remove, but it's still fairly straight forward - once you remove the bottom screws and top shell, the hard disk can then be installed. Take your time, on a clean desk, and blu-tac the screws onto a picture of where you've removed them.

Link to guide:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/Powe...d-Drive/53/10/

JB

yeah you don't need a special HD - just any standard IDE 2.5" drive. I have done this myself, thoughI must warn you there are a sh*tload of screws and it's not going to be a quick thing (took me 2 hours)

recommend you download the instructions from the ifixit site, get a set of small TORX screwdrivers from your local jaycar store (www.jaycar.com.au) and set aside 2-3 hours to do it. For an old 12", it's not worth the labour cost of getting the staff to do it for you.

As the guys above have said , it is a fiddly job that requires you to be methodical. Nothing too hard about it. The worst part I have found after taking apart numerous laptops over the years , is the difficulty of separating some of the plastic case components. The tabs and tab recesses seem to surface friction "glue" themselves together.Force is needed to separate them after all the screws have been removed but not too much so that you would break anything. The crack as the plastic parts come away from each other scares the shit out of me everytime. Everything else is easy by comparison. Just take notes /photos etc. I do something similar to Byrd with the photo. I draw a rough sketch and then tape each screw to its location on the sketch with double sided tape.
Make sure you unplug wiring by pulling on the plug and not the wire.
The only thing to also mention is note which way cables are routed around components and re-do them the same way taking care not to crimp any wiring on reassembly.
I also agree with Aladdin here about the 7200 RPM drives over the standard 5400 versions. More expensive of course but a nice little speed boost for the general operating system and they don't run any hotter or noticeably noisier than the slower ones.
Price 80Gb 5400RPM approx $80
80Gb 7200 RPM approx $130
Warranties vary by model and manufacturer

Stewie

Sorry, I should have been more specific.

$450 was the cost of the HDD plus installation. Back then (12 months ago), the HDD was approx $280, and installation was the rest. Admittedly, this was via an Apple reseller, so I guess I paid RRP for the drive.

Back then, I was pushed for time, newbie, etc etc.

Now, after clicking through MacTalk for some time, I'd prob give it a go at replacing it myself.

And obtaining an official Apple Service manual for a machine is easy, you just need to ask the right person *cough* (Rather then use ifixit ones, if you'd feel happier to have the proper manual any service tech would use).